Owens-CorningĀ® Starter Shingle Roll

The Owens-CorningĀ® starter shingle roll offers an alternative to cutting starter strips from individual shingles, and although slightly more expensive up front they're a big time saver, especially for one-person crews.

Owens-Corning starter shingle roll

The starter shingle roll is about the thickness of a three-tab shingle. The face of the shingle roll has a granular covering with a sealer strip on the bottom, and an adhesive backing that adheres to the roof's deck or underlayment. The adhesive is covered with a waxy paper backing that you pull off as you roll out the shingle roll. The image below shows the Owens-Corning starter shingle roll. * Note - the shingle roll is upside-down in the photo. The red arrow points to the adhesive strip which goes on the bottom of the roof deck, and the green arrow points to the top of the shingle roll.


Owens-Corning starter shingle roll

Starter shingle roll installation

The starter shingle roll gets installed the same way as regular individual starter shingles except that it gets rolled on. The self-sealing strip goes on the bottom, facing up so it will stick to the underside of the roof shingles. Pull some of the paper backing off the shingle roll to expose the adhesive and press the roll onto the roof's deck. Keep pulling the paper backing off while pressing the roll onto the deck.

Nailing the starter shingle roll

If you're installing the shingle roll a day or two before the roof shingles, it can be nailed every six inches, 1" below the top of the shingle roll. If you're installing the roof right away, the shingle roll shouldn't need any nails, because it gets nailed along with the roof shingles. If you're using three-tab shingles, make sure the nails won't end up between the cutouts in the three-tab shingles.

It's best to apply the starter shingle roll on the same day you're going to start laying the roof shingles anyway because if left exposed, the self-seal strip might end up littered with leaves, airborne dust, and stupid bugs who always seem to think sticky, gooey, melted tar is a really good place to land.

Starter shingle roll dimensions

There are several brands of shingle rolls and the sizes range from 7.2 - 9.0 inches tall by 33.3 - 33.5 feet long. The Owens-Corning roll measures 7.2" x 33.3 feet. The image below shows the shingle roll height in relation to a standard three-tab shingle. It's easy to see how the top of the shingle roll will get nailed along with the shingles.


Starter shingle roll next to a 3-tab shingle

Starter shingle roll disadvantages

The one drawback to the starter shingle roll when working alone is figuring out a way to get the roll to stay in place on the eaves if you need to move your scaffolding. My scaffold pic is 20 feet long, but because I almost always work alone, I only have one. The paper backing on the shingle roll is very slippery and will slide off the roof, which will cause the shingle roll to crease or tear. The two solutions are leaning it on a ladder rung if there's one handy, or tacking a roofing nail to the deck and balancing the roll on the nail. The image below shows the roof nail solution.


Shingle starter roll installed on roof

Final thoughts

We've compared the cost in our shingle roll vs. individual shingles article and the shingle roll is indeed more expensive. All things considered though, the Owens-Corning starter shingle roll might cost a bit more, but for us non-roofers who work alone the convenience and time-saving makes it worth the extra cost.